"saki" <saki@ucla.edu> wrote in message news:Xns959F9C6AFF9BFsakiuclaedu@169.232.47.140... > On the death certificate for my great-grandparents' eldest son (he died in > 1926) his parents' birthplace is listed as Tondern, Germany. This is the > closest I've gotten to an actual location for their birth. > > I'm aware of the shifting borders between Denmark and Germany and the > reason for those changes, so I guess trying to determine whether they were > born in Denmark or Germany (1850 and 1862 respectively) is never going to > be certain. > > But in searching for local records---birth, parents' marriages, census--- > will I be seeking records of a town called Tondern/Tonder, a county, or a > larger overall parish? And are such records available under German or > Danish jurisdiction? > > When they emigrated separately to the States (1872 and 1878), my great- > greandfather's last residence was reported as Tinningstedt, my great- > grandmother's as Leck. Are those city records in the same parish or county? > > I've been web searching for answers but it's not entirely clear to me yet. > Any help would be most welcomed. I live close to a FHL so ordering the > films is no problem, I just want to make sure I order the right regional > records. > > ---- > saki@ucla.edu Multimap at http://www.multimap.com shows a TØNDER, TØNDER, 6270 (TÿNDER, TÿNDER, 6270) Denmark, when a lookup for Tondern is made...This town is about 5 km north of the German border. Multimap shows the following possibilities for Germany for Tondern. TÜNDERN, HAMELN, 31789 (East of Dortmund) TANDERN, HILGERTSHAUSEN TANDERN, 86567 (West of München) Multimap shows TINNINGSTEDT, TINNINGSTEDT, 25917 Germany, which is about 25 km south of the Denmark border , near LECK, LECK, 25917. Someone else on this news group can give you better info than I on where to go for records. You might check the LDS site on the Internet for what they have available for those towns. The site is at http://www.familysearch.org/ Good luck on your search. Joe in Georgetown, Texas